Family Treasures

I had the wonderful opportunity this summer to attend family reunions on both my maternal and paternal sides of the family. What wonderful times these were! I've become the family historian, I guess, through my interest in genealogy. I am fortunate in that I became the custodian of some new photographs and objects, given to me in trust at these reunions.

Three things about family treasures:

-A cousin has named me as the safe-keeper of a picture of my grandparents, circa 1918. And not only the picture, but the negative! In looking at this and some other old photos, I am amazed at the quality and clarity of these pictures. Some are taken in the late 1800's and early 1900's. I wonder how precious photographs will be for The Kid and other generations that follow, with the explosion of pictures taken digitally. Photographs are now common place and not a precious and expensive commodity. I also wonder if the medium of digital will last over hundreds of years, as old photos do now. I also saw and coveted a photo of four generations - my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my aunt, and her little infant daughter. I don't know who owns this picture, but hope to find out, and to visit that person in hopes of scanning this treasure.

-Brother One has named me the safe-keeper of an old copy of "Treasure Island" with my father's hand-written name, followed by my next-in-age uncle who wrote his name many, many times in this book. It is obvious that this was first my Dad's book and then passed along to his brother. I didn't know this book existed. In a large family, it is hard to know who may have what, who kept what, what was important or triggered some special feelings for an individual. There are objects and photographs scattered throughout this large immediate and extended family of mine and I hope to spend my retirement visiting many of them, collecting stories and photos. It is all of our information now and needs to be shared with the many descendants. I wish my retirement could come sooner.

-The greatest family treasures are the people. Spending time with my immediate and extended family creates the memories, which are next on the ladder or hierarchy of family treasures. The feelings people have for objects turns the objects into a third tier of treasures. Every family has a story of some insignificant object being important to someone, because of the connection back to memories and the connection back to a person loved.

As the unofficial historian, I have a responsibility to guard and keep safe the photographs, documents, objects, and stories entrusted to me. I often think of having a safety deposit box to ensure these treasures are safe, but have yet to do so. I want to scan the photos and documents first, but there is still a risk of having them here in my house. We have instances on both sides of the family of items lost due to theft or fire or improper storage. I must look into a safety deposit box soon - I've promised so many of my treasured people that I will take care of 'the stuff'.

Take care of your people and your memories and whatever objects you treasure. The connections to others is all we have that is important.